Conventionally, in a clutch mechanism as disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 60-55370, a pinion is engaged with a driving gear rotated by a handle and attached to a spool shaft slidably in the axial direction of the spool shaft so as to be engaged/disengaged with/from the spool shaft. A clutch bar is engaged with the pinion to enable the pinion to slide in the axial direction. A rotatable clutch cam is provided concentric with the spool shaft between the clutch bar and a side plate of a reel body, and an operation member rotates the clutch cam in the clutch releasing direction. The clutch cam is rotated by the operation member to release the connection between the pinion and the spool shaft. A ratchet is rotated by the rotation of the handle in the wind-up direction to rotate the clutch cam in the reverse direction to make the connection between the pinion and the spool shaft.
In the clutch mechanism in the fishing reel disclosed in the above Unexamined Patent Publication, clutch connecting means and clutch releasing means are arranged as follows. As shown in FIG. 11, the clutch connecting means is arranged so that a cam member (a clutch cam) is rotated in the clutch connecting direction by a ratchet wheel a that rotates while a handle (not shown) is rotated in the wind-up direction of the fishing-line. The clutch releasing means is provided with a hook-shaped lever c pivotally supported by a pin f provided between a pair of opposing reel side-plates d for rotating the cam member b in the direction releasing the clutch. A clutch release lever e is rotatably supported by a pin f' transversly provided between the reel side-plate d and a base plate h. The clutch release lever e is provided with a finger operation portion e' extending backward, a connection portion e" extending downward, and a connection pin q provided on a tip end of the connection portion e". The connection pin q is passed through elongated holes i formed in the reel side-plate d and the base plate h to engage with an end c' of the hook-shaped lever c. The other end c" of the hook-shaped lever c is connected to a connection portion b' of the cam member b through a pin j.
In such an arrangement, however, there have been problems in that it sometimes becomes impossible to perform the clutch releasing operation because a stopper portion b" of the cam member b abuts against a tooth portion of the ratchet wheel a in releasing the clutch. It is necessary to form the elongated hole i in the side plate d and the base plate h as described above, and water, dust, or the like may easily enter through the elongated hole i into the clutch mechanism portion, bearing portions, etc., to make it difficult sometimes to carry out the clutch releasing operation and connection change-over operation. Consequently, the "click feeling" associated with the connection changing operation may disappear.